Your body contains trillions of micro-organisms, including beneficial bacteria, which make up what is called your microbiome. Many of these micro-organisms are extremely important for your immune system, heart, weight, everyday stress levels, and many other aspects of good health. In this blog article we will explain why it’s so important for your body to understand what the microbiome is and why it’s important to support good health. The microscopic living things in your gut and intestines are referred to as microorganisms, or microbes, for short.

Most of the microbes in your intestines are found in a “pocket” of your large intestine called the cecum, and they are referred to as the gut microbiome. Although many different types of microbes live inside you, bacteria is the most studied. In fact, there are more bacterial cells in your body than human cells. There are roughly 40 trillion bacterial cells in your body and only 30 trillion human cells. That means you are more bacteria than human. What’s even more crazy is there are up to 1,000 species of bacteria in the human gut microbiome, and each of them plays a different role in your body. Most of them are extremely important for your health.

Consequently, these microbes may weigh as much as 2-5 pounds, which is roughly the weight of a human brain. Together, they will function as an extra organ in your body and play a huge role in supporting your good health. Microbes have learned to play very important roles in the human body. In fact, without the gut microbiome, it would be very difficult to survive. The gut microbiome begins to affect your body the moment you are born. When you are first exposed to microbes when you pass through your mother’s birth canal. However, new evidence suggest that babies may come in contact with some microbes while inside the womb. As you grow, your gut microbiome begins to diversify, meaning it starts to contain many different types of microbial species. Higher microbiome diversity is considered important for your health.